Protection of Children (Digital Safety and Data Protection) Bill

Debate between Helen Hayes and Mims Davies

2nd reading
Friday 7th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

I start by paying tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Whitehaven and Workington (Josh MacAlister) for introducing this Bill and for his work to advance the debate on the need for action to halt the harms caused by mobile phones and screen time to our children and young people.

Less than a year ago, in the previous Parliament, the Education Committee published a report on the impact of screen time on education and wellbeing. Based on a careful examination of the evidence, the Committee concluded that

“the harms of screen time and social media use significantly outweigh the benefits for young children, whereas limited use of screens and genuinely educational uses of digital technology can have benefits for older children.”

It is worth restating the evidence that the Committee looked at. We saw a 52% increase in children’s screen time between 2020 and 2022, and it has continued to rise since that time. Twenty-five per cent of children and young people use their phones in a way that is consistent with behavioural addiction—a staggering statistic. One in five children aged between three and four has their own mobile phone. One in four children has their own phone by the age of eight, and almost all 12-year-olds have their own mobile phone. This is a very rapid change in behaviour, which has happened without any corresponding policy or regulatory framework.

There is substantial evidence of the negative effects of the rapid increase in the use of smartphones by children. Research by the Children’s Commissioner found that 79% of children had encountered violent pornography online by the age of 18. Girls and young women are particularly affected by the pressure to conform with the unrealistic body images that they see on social media. It is not only girls and young women; eating disorders and body dysmorphia are also rising rapidly in boys and young men.

Eighty-one per cent of girls aged seven to 21 have experienced some form of threatening or upsetting behaviour online. Mobile phone use is fuelling a rapid increase in sexual crimes committed against children online—up 400% since 2013. One in five children aged 10 to 15 has experienced at least one type of bullying behaviour online, and three quarters of them say that this has happened either at school or during school time.

There are impacts on learning at home and in the classroom, too. It can take up to 20 minutes for pupils to refocus on what they were learning after engaging in non-academic activity on their phone. Children have worse working memory, processing speeds, attention levels, language skills and executive function. The sheer amount of time spent looking at screens is also contributing to our children becoming more sedentary and less active.

As with all harms affecting children, it is those with the greatest vulnerability who suffer the most. Children in care, care leavers, young carers, children living in poverty and children with additional needs are the most susceptible to online harms. Vulnerable children are also at risk of criminal exploitation when using their screens. Social media and online gaming have been described by those leading the work to tackle county lines exploitation as the foundation of county lines recruitment.

The crisis in the mental health and wellbeing of our children and young people is well documented. We are raising a generation of children and young people who are struggling with anxiety, depression, body image issues and eating disorders.

Every generation of parents has to help their children navigate a set of challenges that they did not have to face themselves. Screen time and social media are surely the parenting challenges of our generation. We have ample evidence of the harms that are being done. We also understand much more than previous generations about children’s brain development and the way that the vital building blocks of their brains develop rapidly during childhood, and we know that screen time is quite literally rewiring young brains.

[Mims Davies]

The hon. Lady’s speech is fascinating. What she is saying is reflected by correspondence in my inbox from parents saying, “We need help,” and from youngsters saying, “We know our concentration levels at school are affected. We know it’s an addiction.” This issue is uniting families in that way, and I hope that the hon. Lady, who chairs the Education Committee, can push the Government, on behalf of both parents and children, for a change in outcome.

[Helen Hayes]

The Education Committee will certainly continue to take this issue extremely seriously and to monitor what happens, and I will say a little about that in a moment.

We know that screen time is quite literally rewiring young brains, resulting in lower cognitive abilities and affecting language acquisition, critical thinking, social skills and attention span.

When the Government have evidence of harm, they have a duty to act. The point of legislation in this case is its power to change societal norms in a way that will make a difference to parents and professionals who are currently struggling to limit the harms of screen time, but lack the back-up to do so. There are many comparable examples, with smoking and seatbelts being the most obvious, in which the evidence of harm became clear but the debate raged for many years, with counter-arguments against legislation.